


Caleb's Wish

by AboardAMoose



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 16:33:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14898087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AboardAMoose/pseuds/AboardAMoose
Summary: Caleb finally get what he wants. The power to change his past.Spoilers for episode 18.





	Caleb's Wish

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot get this inevitable situation out of my head. Damn you Liam O'Brien. Looking forward to 80 episodes of this hanging over us.

They had traversed continents for this. They had leapt through planes of existence. They had stared into the faces of the Gods, they had battled demons wreathed in the flames both of scorching heat and self-loathing, they had loved and lost.

All for this. Every step, every scar, every spell for this tarnished, tattered, ancient scroll of paper. To others, little more than a scrap. But Caleb saw its power, saw it rolling off the parchment in waves. He saw how, in his hands, the power could rise to a tsunami. Power that could change landscapes and wash away his sins.

“Caleb?”

The touch of a clawed hand upon his shoulder.

Jester, who had brought laughter to a dark, dark world.

Fjord, who had brought safety to a dangerous one.

Nott, who had rescued him, who still needed him to rescue her in turn.

“This is it, isn’t it?”

A female voice, hushed with awe.

Beauregard, the annoying younger sister he had never expected to find.

Yasha, the only one who understood.

Except perhaps…

For the first time in long minutes, Caleb raised his head. The spider-web fine tracery of the Wish spell fell away, and before him… Red eyes filled with tears. Thin mouth wobbling. Trying so hard to be pleased for him. Trying so hard to keep the grief spilling over.

Caleb looked away.

-o-

They all kept their distance that night, secluded in their own corners of the mansion. Caleb in his library, Nott in her vault, Yasha and Fjord sparring in the barn.

Molly was alone in the bar. He hated being alone. He supposed he better get used to it. The glass in his hand shattered beneath his grip. He hardly noticed the cut – just another scar – or even the blood until the sting of whisky seeped into his flesh.

His hiss was cut short by a pair of blue hands closing over his, and the hum of golden healing magic.

“Molly…”

“Jester.”

The tiefling looked so downcast, Molly had to lift himself out of his gloom.

“Your horns are drooping, darling.”

“Everyone’s so sad. Everyone’s so sad but… I don’t understand why. Caleb got what he wanted, why isn’t everyone happy?” The last words were almost a wail.

“Because of what it means.” Molly pulled his hands away from her now cold grip and began to pour two more glasses, ignoring the fragments scattered across the varnished wood. “Caleb’s going to wish away the death of his parents. But it’s… It’s not like this glass. If I wished I hadn’t broken this glass, it just fixes itself. But say you only came in to see me because you heard the glass smash. We wouldn’t be having this conversation. Actions have consequences. By wishing away an action 17 years ago, Caleb’s wishing away 17 years of consequences.” Watery blue eyes were staring up at Molly, but he could tell that Jester had not reached the conclusion he had, so many months before. “Caleb meeting us was one of those consequences, Jester. He’s going to wish away the Mighty Nein.”

-o-

They made love desperately that night. Limbs clinging, mouths sucking, no amount of bare skin enough to satiate, fingers bruising.

Until it was too much.

Until Molly stopped in mid thrust, his stomach muscles spasming, the huffs of sobs escaping him. Tears fell and mingled with the sweat on Caleb’s freckled skin beneath.

“Oh Mollymauk.”

The tiefling turned his head against the hand that cradled his cheek, though his body was frozen in place, arms locked on either side of his lover’s body.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, give me a minute.” He was still inside Caleb, still hard, but the human was pulling away. “No-!” His claws on Caleb’s shoulder stilled the movement. “Stay. I mean – I don’t mean. Just here, now. I mean-”

“Shh, I know what you mean,” Caleb stilled his hips, but tightened his arms instead, until the fortress of Molly’s muscles collapsed, trembling, into the wizard’s grip. “I will find you, Molly. I promise that I will. You will not be alone.”

-o-

Molly finally slept, apologising unnecessarily for the nth time for ruining their last night together.

Caleb didn’t sleep. Caleb left to find Yasha, sat in the mansion’s doorway, letting the breeze drift lazily across her skin.

“I do not want to make this choice.”

Heterochromatic eyes stared back at him.

“I have promised Nott that I would make her a halfling. But the spell is tricky. If I mis-word it, it will be that she was born a halfling, to halfling parents, and we will never meet in that jail cell. But she will be what she wants, live the life she wanted. Maybe. Even if I word it carefully, enough that she changes form today… It is such a big spell. I will be exhausted. I may not be able to cast it again – ever. I lose my chance at redemption.”

“Redemption does not always look like this,” Yasha replied. “Otherwise – is redemption only reserved for wizards? I do not think so.”

“I’ve told him I will find him, but I do not know how." Years of want. Months of love. He could switch the ratio. He could be there when the tielfing returned from his grave, even as he fell.

“Can you risk it?”

Caleb rolled the scroll from one palm to the other, deep in thought, as the moons set and the sun began to rise.


End file.
